Denise O'Sullivan a doubt for Ireland World Cup qualifier against Netherlands

Denise O’Sullivan in doubt for Ireland’s World Cup qualifier with the Netherlands Cork’s Denise O’Sullivan is in doubt for the Republic of Ireland’s meeting with the Netherlands this Saturday in World Cup qualifying at Utrecht, 7.30pm.

The midfielder picked up a knee injury during the first half of Tuesday’s 2-1 defeat to France at Tallaght Stadium, and she kept going as Les Bleues came back with two quickfire goals midway through the second half.

Manager Carla Ward does not know if the centurion will be able to play, after going close to scoring an equaliser in the dying seconds at Tallaght.

"The honest answer is I don't know," admitted Ward said. "Denise, of course, wants to stay on the pitch every minute of every day. That's just Denise. 

She's so important to us, but equally we don't want to risk her. 

"So, there was a conversation with the medical team because she's got an ongoing niggle in her knee. She'll be assessed."

Ward will be hoping for a full-strength squad for a game against a Netherlands side that drew 2-2 with Poland on Tuesday evening in Gdansk.

Oranje are also out to impress in front of a home crowd, while Ireland will have aspirations of matching their famous 0-0 draw with the Dutch in 2017.

The Girls in Green have come a long way since then, when the dream was to make it to a major tournament and the general consensus at the time was that a breakthrough was getting nearer and nearer with each campaign. Then came the Finland victory in September 2022 and that night in Glasgow, when O’Sullivan set up Amber Barrett for one of the most famous goals in Irish football history.

The aim has since been to repeat that, to make qualification a regular thing, and there’s already a chance of matching the Class of ’22 given that the team has already secured a play-off spot for the 2027 World Cup via the UEFA Nations League.

WINNING IS A HABIT

The next step is competing and making those big results a habit, instead of something that comes once a decade, meaning regular performances against teams like France and the Netherlands.

That almost makes Tuesday worse, as Katie McCabe capitalised on a fast start to finish off a neat move set up by Anna Patten and Emily Murphy. Everything went the team’s way after that, until Melvine Malard got through and slotted in midway with one of her first touches. The forward got a second from a goalmouth scramble in the 80th minute, to completely flip the script, and force Ireland to come out.

O’Sullivan thought she got the equaliser in the dying seconds, but her powerful shot was take off the goal-line, just after a very real penalty shout over a handball inside the area. It finished as a frustrating night and Ward held nothing back in her verdict.

"I'm not going to lie, I'm gutted," Ward said. "And if you're gutted coming on the back of a defeat against one of the best in the world, it probably tells you that I feel like we should have got more from it. So, yeah, disappointed, but a huge amount of pride for everybody out there.

"I'd like to know who were the last team to have 11 shots on target against France. I mean, France boss Laurent Bonadei said to me at the end, actually, 'best team we've played in a very long time'. 

"He said, 'the fight, the way you controlled the game without the ball', which is funny because we spoke a lot about that over this last week. 

How do we control the game without the ball? I'm not sure many teams get that many opportunities against France."

The thing now is, can this be brought to the Netherlands and used to get a positive result? That’s down to recovery and can the players manage the load of two physical and mentally testing games against some of the best in Europe in the space of five days?

Tuesday did show what is possible, there just wasn’t a result to go with it.